 By Caroline Paulian.
Let's come back to the individual ranking:
Before the start of the competition I say to Maria Olaru there's a french
proverb which says : "jamais deux sans trois" ( "never two without three")-
(sorry for the translation).
That's means when you won two times, you must win 3 times. I did reference
to her Marseille victories in 97 and 99. She answered me with a smile "I am
going to try. I feel good tonight." The suspens for the individual ranking table was
intense: Would the romanians dominate the podium as they did at Sydney Games and if
yes in which order? Would a russia or an ukrainian overturn the hierarchy?
At the first round Andrea Raducan missed her flip tucked full (9.200).
Frustrating when you know she perfectly sticked it during the training! The
door was opened for the olympic champion Simona Amanar who never dipped below
9.525 (on bars: routine with some hesitation and not very high Gienger). Having started well Amanar never looked back and stormed through the
competition to take a well deserved place. Steady routines for Simona,
nailing full in, triple twist and double Yurchenko like they were nothing!
She won with a confortable lead on Raducan, 38.738 to 38.250 pts.
I think Simona must have been very happy of this victory because she
competed in the Massillia since 1994. Either she still didn't have the
skills to win or a bars errors ruined her hopes. This year and few weeks
before her retirement she finally wins one of the rare title which missed
her. Well done Simona !!
Despite her fall Raducan finished second thanks to 3 strong routines. She
worked her olympic routines with minor changes. Floor was her best event (
she used her old spanish music) with 9.75 and explosive tumbling. (not
double layout on first)
Evguenia Kuznetsova won the bronze and to my mind the "most elegant
gymnast" title. New look for Evguenia (short hair) but still great body
lines, style (great interpretation on "Impossible Mission" music and best
note of the competition 9.800) and fight in her eyes. Only her bandage on
her foot (during the trainings) reminded us of her bad luck for Sydney. Her
experience is a big advantage, she saved training time but looked very
confident when the competition was starting. She earned the best note on bars (stadler work / Gienger / Yaeger / double layout )and floor. On beam, the young gymnasts did not have her
innovative and graceful positions.
Olaru, fourth, performed a consistant competition excepted on bars where she
missed her Katchev. Without that fall she'd have been on the podium!
Little Yarosh looks set to become a major force on the ukrainian team. Superb bars and floor routine, vault (Her Yurchenko 1,5 was still a little short),
she took the fifh place.
Suzanne Hammes, with no hope for a medal at first, gave us a look at the
dutch work: well-structured routines, technic and artistry. On the paper
she wasn't the best dutch gymnast but she was the steadiest with good
execution.
She's a tall gymnast, a pretty face, a good tumbler (whip to triple twist
-2,5 twist punch front) and a good vaulter (Yurchenko 1/2 turn piked salto).
Anastasia Kolesnikova 's artisty and virtuosity (beam and bars!) should
have fans all over world as well as all-around places. Unfortunately she
hit her beam dismount hands down to place only seventh.
Verona Van de Leur was a rival for the romanians and the russians on each
event, on the beam routine a 8.125 pts moved her down to the 8th rank.
Teslenko finished 9th after wobbling on her beam dismount.
Melodie Vaudable took advantage of the home support to turn in strong and
consistent performances which resulted in the 10th place.
Privalova showed a well executed beam routine (flip layout layout - rulfova
- front salto + changement leap -2,5 twist dismount) and a fantastic floor
routine (high powered arabian double front - whip to 2,5 twist - double
piked - triple twist) - did someone say the floor was hard? Unfortunately a
fall on vault and 8. 775 on bars ruined her all-around effort, she
finished 11th.
A fall from the beam dropped Gabriella Wammes to the 12th place.
Galina Tirik displayed creditable performances but finished only 15th.
Peron, 16th, suffered an injury which hampered her work but was still one
of the most popular performers on floor (9.625 pts).
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